The 1988 Annual World's Best SF

• The Pardoner's Tale, by Robert Silverberg - When the computer controls the destiny of citizens, even to deciding life and death, one man fights back by hacking the system to "pardon" people.
• Rachel in Love, by Pat Murphy - A scientist dies of a heart attack during the night, and his intelligent chimp daughter runs away from home, gets caught by a Primate Research Center, and falls in love with the janitor at the facility.
• America, by Orson Scott Card - A fantasy story. Having been betrayed by the European people, the land of America raises up a savior to return the land to the native tribes.
• Crying in the Rain, by Tanith Lee - In a post-apocalyptic world where radioactive rain is a deadly killer, only those lucky enough to live in a dome can expect to grow up and escape the inevitable cancers--or those outsiders lucky enough to be chosen as a mistress and brought inside.
• The Sun Spider, by Lucius Shepard - Reynolds Dulambre gives up all else to seek out evidence of life on the Sun.
• Angel, by Pat Cadigan - An "angel" tags onto a woman, and feeds on pain and suffering.
• Forever Yours, Anna, by Kate Wilhelm - Time travel and handwriting analysis.
• Second Going, by James Tiptree, Jr. - Divine aliens visit Earth, bringing joy to the whole world--and chaos when they leave.
• Dinosaurs, by Walter Jon Williams - An ambassador for the human race tries to negotiate with a backward alien race to prevent an inevitable war.
• All Fall Down, by Don Sakers - A prion disease is killing the human race, and their only hope is to convince the tree-like Hlutr to intervene and produce a cure.